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Talk:Timeline of events (original trilogy)/@comment-86.8.182.173-20150517173942/@comment-178.167.154.118-20150520223541
The inspiration for all the Mad Max films ranges to events and possible events dating back 40 years. Oil and a nuclear war coming out of an oil war are the implied major themes. Let's briefly look at each. Mad Max 1: remember this was conceived in a pre-Iranian revolution cold war post Arab oil embargo world. US allies include Iran lead by the Shah. It also has Arab allies like Saudi Arabia. Iraq is then an enemy. In the notes for this, a US v Iraq war has happened and oil is in short supply. A bigger (nuclear?) war is immenent presumably between the US v USSR. Set 'a few years from 1978/79'. Mad Max 2 aka The Road Warrior: 1981. We have had the Iranian revolution, Iran Iraq war and Iranian hostage crisis. US and Iraq get friendlier, US and Iran get less so or so it looks. The film's notes describe a war between Iran and Saudi Arabia but does not refer to the US v Iraq war from the descriptor of film 1. Perhaps we can assume the Iranian revolution, Iran Iraq war and the US v Iraq wars that ACTUALLY happened eventually lead to (along with other things) the Mad Max 1 scenario (a mismanaged and much worse version of the 2008-2011 credit crunch situation). Perhaps as you say, an Iran v Saudi Arabia war remains in the future. Certainly, US v Russia issues remain too and it is unclear what near future relations between these 2 superpowers and Iran and SA willl be like!?!? Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome: Even though heavily implied in the second film that a superpower nuclear war over oil takes place, it is really only confirmed in the third film with radiation testers and the story of the 'poxyclips'! The notes seem to imply that the war was well underway in the first film and caused massive changes by the second but only got nuclear after that. So, the third is the ONLY post nuclear of the 3 first ones. Mad Max Fury Road: Though certain years like 1999, 2000, 2003, 2013/14 have been floating around as possible dates for the first series, who knows? Fury Road is meant to be 2060? 45 years from 'now'. Is it is reboot or is it the same character?? Hard to tell. They deliberately keep dates and events in the actual films very very vague. Descriptors, interviews and sheer presumation has in fact filled in the blanks. At the end of the day, the first 3 were predicting in their thoughts decades like the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s. Some things happened similarly, some not. The new film clearly is predicting 2010s, 2020s, 2030s, 2040s, 2050s, 2060s. But what is a date? Immortan Joe could make 2020 2060 of a sudden for his own religious reasons. This happened many times with many regimes who changed the date to a new one (1979 in Iran interestingly enough being an example). I think a new timescale has to be updated. This does not necessarily have to be a complete reboot but more an reimagination. It is open to interpretation who Max is. Some claim he is the same character, others say he is a new one, others even claim he is the Feral Kid from the second film! Perhaps all are right .. at least until George Miller publishes the official backstory.